Calculated Analytical Thinkers

By nature, I would describe myself as quite a calculated, analytical and very logical thinker.

Board games, video games and mental math tests could be conducted and completed with ease in my sleep.

And anything even remotely related to figuring out sequences or puzzles was solved the moment they were put out in front of me.

But enough of the gloating.

Being a calculated analytical thinker by nature has made me so susceptible to many, dangerous pitfalls, that I no longer want to be batting for that particular team, and here’s why…

Mistakes and Pitfalls of A Calculated Analytical Thinker

Action-Disoriented

We are anything but action oriented, at least for me.

I feel we don’t understand what taking action actually means, let alone possessing the knack for taking the right action.

We are masters at theoretic work, and conjuring up plans, but ho-hell, we’ll never take consistent action, and see that plan through to fruition.

Or rather, it takes us a very long time to do so.

An example of this would be in the way an analytical thinker would go about setting up a website or blog in order to create residual streams of income.

Building an Blog or Website

Assuming he doesn’t know the exact specifics, he’s more likely to spend the majority of his time reading, researching and planning, rather than actually doing even one thing each day that will push him towards his goals.

“When do you feel you’ll be ready to actually begin putting all these ideas and plans into practice?”

“I’m struggling with this a lot myself right now. I know that in the end the jump will either be made or not, and that is a decision falling solely on me.

However I’m not a brave blind jumper like some others (who I am in total awe of, by the way.) I’m a calculated analytical thinker, I like to have at least most of my ducks in a row before I make any moves.

To this end (and knowing myself) I set a goal and timeline for this jump to take place. From a pivotal point in the beginning, I decided that I would collect info/prepare financially/explore options for 36 months.

Sounds like a lot, but 8 have already FLOWN by. I’ve told many people of my timeline, written it all over the place and started strategically making moves towards the goal. This was the best way for ME to feel “comfortable” making a move.”

Using myself as an example to further illustrate the importance of starting early, I have been ‘planning’ to have a blog and online business since January 2010, it has since been 3 and a half years since then, and I only began seriously in September of 2012.

The strange thing in all of this is that as of today, I effectively have 6 gigabytes worth of resources and educational material on how to make a successful blog, and a variety of other business models I could use in unison.

However, I have barely touched even 10 of the 1,795 files at my disposal, yet alone utilised them to their full potential – and this has taught me a few things about myself and other calculated analytical thinkers.

Calculated Analytical Thinkers Are…

Less Likely to Die: Yet also less likely to live, by focusing too much on the minute details of every plan and action, you could lose scope of the most important time period in life – today!

Spending your time perfecting your plan may cause you to miss out on some finer details that can only be learned through experience.

Time won’t wait for you: There is no true perfect time for anything except the one that exists today. Your industry is always changing, society is always changing – nothing is inherently stagnant. You could miss the ‘boat’ for success if you’re always planning for a day that may never come.

We behave like this because we love numbers, data, graphs and charts.

Before delving into a specific idea or endeavour, we want hard evidence that it is indeed possible to succeed by following a proven plan. However this is backward thinking.

We need to learn from brave blind jumpers, specifically on how to become comfortable in uncomfortable situations and how to feel safe, when there is no safety net.

This will inevitably make us live up to our potential because our minds will be working ever so fervently, to find a means of converting our mental blueprints into physical reality.

However things aren’t as dim for calculated analytical thinkers as I’ve been letting on in this post.

There are some very good redeeming attributes all calculated analytical thinkers possess, and some of these attributes are the sole determinant for why we are successful, on average.

Positive Attributes of Calculated Analytical Thinkers

Whilst our ability to plan ahead for the future may be seen as a pitfall, it can also serve to be our greatest attribute.

This can be seen as a good quality because it demonstrates awareness of how patience and delayed gratification are required to achieve any plan, vision or goal.

This means we are less likely to quit half way through, and subsequently become more productive and excited the closer we get to our original goal.

The trap of believing that they need to make big life decisions before they can start doing anything.

The trap that you need to be born with a passion.

And the lie that being able to combine your interests with a profession is easy.

When people ask me what I’m going to be doing in five or ten years, I usually tell them I’m going to be an entrepreneur.

“Oh. What’s your business going to be?”

I have reason to believe this internet business could be it.

Between revenues and freelance work I’m expecting to make about ten thousand dollars this year.

Concentrated effort for the next four or five years could definitely make this a livable income.

But I don’t usually say that. Because it isn’t the point.

In all honesty, I have no idea where I am going to be in a decade.

My track record shows that my passions have evolved considerably, even over the last couple years.

Whilst I agree with him on the whole – for me it was an absolute necessity to know where my life was heading.

If I didn’t know where I wanted my life to head, I’d get any random job I hated just to confuse certain members of society (note, my parents and friends) that I’m doing something valuable with my life, even though I know I’m not.

Crazily enough, my dream job and life goal was to build a small mastermind group of motivational speakers who would hold talks at various events around the globe.

However, like Scott so eloquently puts – passion evolves. I’ve since become much more ambitious I now want to create an organisation that teaches life skills to as many people as possible.

Other positive attributes include our ability to be both logical and creative.

The two are not mutually exclusive.

Greats such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Isaac Newton were creative logical thinkers because they could explain concepts in an easily understandable way, yet express their creativity through the manner of their work in order to make discoveries and inventions well ahead of their time.